Another week, another car parts company in trouble.

Global's troubles hit hard

If the output of widgets stops, it could bring the whole car assembly industry to a halt, we are told, not for the first time.

At risk are thousands of jobs, many millions of dollars in revenue, and Australia's reputation as an exporter of top-quality manufactured goods.

It's such a familiar sequence that there is a danger people will start to believe it's a case of the little boy crying "wolf".

But it is no such thing. It is a deadly serious predicament for the car makers, whose production lines are balanced on a fine edge of reliable parts supplies.

"The easiest thing, in theory, for us would be for us to produce every single part that goes into every single car," said Ford public affairs manager Sinead McAlary. "That used to be done generations ago, but it's not practical in any way, shape or form," she said, pointing to the huge cost of tooling up to make so many different items.

"We have to concentrate on our core business, the design and engineering and manufacture of motor vehicles."

Which is not to say that the car makers are sitting around doing nothing while the latest parts maker to hit trouble, Global Engineered Fasteners, teeters on the edge of viability.

The owners of Global, previously Ajax Fasteners, called in the administrators two weeks ago and immediately turned to the customers for support.

Parts makers such as Pacifica Group and Textron of the US are the main customers, and they supply sub-assemblies to Holden and Ford.

Ford is not even a direct customer of Global, but was called into the talks late last week.

Global has been in trouble for some time and, as long ago as February, Ford, through its supplier, and others agreed to a significant price rise for Global.

However, Global was still trading at a loss, which resulted in the appointment of the administrators, and the customers were called in again last week.

It is believed some Global customers, and Ford, a non-customer, agreed to advance a big sum of money to Global just to cover the company's recent trading losses.

One of the customers could not commit the sum asked of it, undermining the efforts to resolve Global's problems and keep it afloat.

Administrator Stephen Longley does not have the usual sort of "wiggle room" that administrators often have.

Usually, a sick company is owed money by a range of debtors, and also has some assets that may be liquidated quickly to raise cash to keep the doors open while the administrators reorganise the business.

Global's case is different.

"We don't have that luxury here," Mr Longley said. "The debtors have been factored (sold to a collection agency).

"When they are collected they immediately go to someone else. If we collect $1 million in cash from a customer, we can't use that to trade the business on." It is believed Global's plant and equipment is also fully financed.

Mr Longley's other options are limited. If he raises debts from a lender to keep the company going, he and his PricewaterhouseCoopers colleague in the administration, David McEvoy, are personally liable for those debts. "We don't have free cash flow to run the business," he said.

"We have to go and borrow money to run the business or ask the customers for it. "We paid $160,000 in wages last week and we had $440,000 due this week. That's $600,000 of costs and we haven't got a cracker (of revenue) yet." Mr Longley literally has to make life and death decisions for Global on a daily basis.

"One of my staff came to me and said we need to order $1 million of steel from OneSteel today. I don't know whether we are going to be here in a month."